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What else to offer seo services?

For those who offer SEO services, I know this might be a pretty basic question, but what would you suggest in addition to the following things to report regularly to clients? Very curious.

1. Have confirmation messages/submission details sent to client's specified email address for directory submissions.
2. Report which directories/related sites you submitted to or asked a link from(as some directories don't seem to send any confirmation messages at all, dead maybe).
3. Report SERPs of their keywords, perhaps once a month.
4. what else?

Honestly? I'd hire a front-end Web developer who knows his/her stuff (especially when it comes to accessibility, design, information architecture, on-site search engine optimization, semantic markup, and usability), a Web copywriter who has experience writing for THE WEB (not print), and a marketing consultant. Have the Web developer build the site, the copywriter write the contents of the site (keeping an eye on the search engines, but writing the copy for the people who will be reading it), and then turn the marketing consultant loose.

Every month I'd then look at all the data I can get my hands on (traffic, popular keywords, sales, number of unique visitors, what pages are popular, which ones aren't working), and report all that to the client. I'd also have the marketing consultant draft a survey to find out what the users like and don't like about the site (an email survey would work wonders) and then report that data back to you so you could inform the client, and then have him work with the copywriter to see what changes can be made to those "dud" pages to turn them into gold.

Honestly? I'd hire a front-end Web developer who knows his/her stuff (especially when it comes to accessibility, design, information architecture, on-site search engine optimization, semantic markup, and usability), a Web copywriter who has experience writing for THE WEB (not print), and a marketing consultant. Have the Web developer build the site, the copywriter write the contents of the site (keeping an eye on the search engines, but writing the copy for the people who will be reading it), and then turn the marketing consultant loose.

Every month I'd then look at all the data I can get my hands on (traffic, popular keywords, sales, number of unique visitors, what pages are popular, which ones aren't working), and report all that to the client. I'd also have the marketing consultant draft a survey to find out what the users like and don't like about the site (an email survey would work wonders) and then report that data back to you so you could inform the client, and then have him work with the copywriter to see what changes can be made to those "dud" pages to turn them into gold.

But you probably don't want to hear any of that anyway.

Spot on Dan, he probably didn't want to hear that because it wasn't what he asked. If he'd asked for an completely different approach and a bit of a lecture then that would have been a first class response.

I'd say you covered it in your list Lee plus Hooperman's excellent suggestion. The point of SEO is to drive traffic organically, without traffic a number one spot is useless so report on the success of the optimisation and monitor changes that could affect that traffic.

SEO is a long term strategy and you should have a long term relationship with your client because at some point they'll have to do more work to maintain their SERP position.

"look at all the data I can get my hands on (traffic, popular keywords, sales, number of unique visitors, what pages are popular, which ones aren't working), and report all that to the client"

And then there's the sentence after that as well (which ties into the first paragraph). Basically don't just offer reports, charts and pie graphs. Help the client improve his or her business and make more money instead (so you can in turn make more yourself - happy clients are far more likely to refer their friends associates and colleagues to you afterall).

"look at all the data I can get my hands on (traffic, popular keywords, sales, number of unique visitors, what pages are popular, which ones aren't working), and report all that to the client"

And then there's the sentence after that as well (which ties into the first paragraph). Basically don't just offer reports, charts and pie graphs. Help the client improve his or her business and make more money instead (so you can in turn make more yourself - happy clients are far more likely to refer their friends associates and colleagues to you afterall).

I can read Dan.

Once again I'll make the distinction between Search Engine Marketing and SEO which is just one part of SEM.

From my last post "He asked what he should report to SEO clients, not for a confusing incomplete search engine marketing strategy."

Lee was asking about SEO. Your answer was well beyond the scope of the question and I thought it confused the issue.